The Democrats’ attack on the Supreme Court has never been about ethics. It’s about trying to destroy the court now that the left no longer controls it. Democrats’ criticism of the court’s recently issued Code of Ethics, which every justice on the court signed, proves this point again. The left’s go-to judicial ethics expert, Professor Stephen Gillers, opined that the code is a “commendable piece of work.”
But that’s not good enough for the two Democrats leading the partisan and unprecedented investigation into the court, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Both senators issued comments critical of the court’s new code, including that it does not have an outside enforcement mechanism to oversee the justices’ compliance. But the Supreme Court is a separate branch specifically established in the Constitution, and it would be unconstitutional for anybody to oversee the justices’ decision-making.
Despite Justices Thomas and Alito acting honorably and ethically, Durbin has issued a notice for a meeting this Thursday for the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider sending subpoenas to friends of these justices for information on their friendships. These subpoenas would be constitutionally defective as they are not in support of any legislative purpose.
But what is more astonishing is how these Democrats attack the court for so-called “ethical” transgressions, when both senators themselves have taken unethical official actions to benefit their spouses’ clients.
In 2014, the Chicago Tribune reported that Sen. Durbin personally directed an appropriation earmark of $150,000 to one of
